Sunday, 28 February 2016

At some point this weekend I passed 2500 followers over on Instagram and to say THANK-YOU I'm running a little giveaway! Head over to my Instagram profile (@sunshine_jo) and find out how to win yourself AND a friend some Sunshine goodies... and GOOD LUCK!

Friday, 26 February 2016

Kicking off Friday again with a mini update to share another commission I was asked to create in time for the festive season. I love being asked to create these special doodles and when they involve being showered with photos of dogs (or cats, rabbits, guinea pigs!) I can't help but smile!

Jo sent me so many beautiful pictures of her parents bloodhound and asked me to capture the handsome devil in Sunshine form as a Christmas gift to them. So today, I would like you to all meet Mac...

He was an absolute delight to doodle and I even heard that the hound himself was pretty chuffed with the portrait. I think he looks brilliant sat next to the final print all framed up and seeing this photo when Jo sent it over made my day!

If you may be interested in turning your pet or any of your loved ones into a Sunshine at all prices start from £40 and vary depending on detail involved. Please feel free to send a couple of photos and a description of what you would like doodling to bonjour[at]hello-sunshine.co.uk and I'll reply with more details and a quote for you.

Wednesday, 24 February 2016

This little update is about the first part of our epic three week break which we were lucky enough to take during January. Will's Mum had rented a beautiful cottage right on Northcott Mouth Beach, near Bude to celebrate her 60th birthday and after packing up the cats for a holiday of their own we started the drive down to Cornwall.

Now we all know motorway journeys aren't the most exciting, unless you count playing Eddie Stobart lorry bingo! But this one turned out to be one of the best ones ever for me when we stopped about half way for a loo break and found these magical services...

I know it may not look much but if you haven't ever been to Gloucester Services on the M5 then you're missing out! It's like a mini heaven hidden away in the roadside, filled with farm shop goodies, bright open spaces and the most amazing selection of fresh food you could ever imagine - no Golden Arches in sight!

I won't waffle on too much about it (it's a service station after all!) but trust me, next time you're travelling on the M5 be sure to look out for these services and you won't be disappointed! Unless you're hanging out of your bumhole and really need a Maccy D's to save you... then you might be a bit disappointed!

We arrived down at the cottage in the dark accompanied by howling winds and pouring rain - well it was still mid-Winter! In the morning, although it was a bit grey, I couldn't care less about potential bad weather when I made my morning brew and was greeted with this view from the kitchen...

The Nook cottage was literally on the beach and full of so much charm and character - even bumping my head on the low ceilings and door frames couldn't stop me falling in love with the place. It was beautiful!

We spent the week taking walks along the beach (towards Sandymouth and down to Bude) as well as taking a mini road trip further along the coast towards Clovelley and a drive down into Tintagel and Welcombe in North Devon. We were pretty lucky with the weather on most days, with only the odd hail storm(!) and shower that took us by surprise.

It was just so nice to be outdoors though, by the sea and stomping through fields of mud and puddles exploring new parts of the South West. I was a very happy bunny and I'm sure these next few holiday snaps will help show you why...

Northcott Mouth Beach

Paddling on the beach in front of our cottage

Beautiful Clovelly

That's a giant teapot! A shame Margaret's Tea Room was closed.

Muddy walks are the best!

Exploring caves and waterfalls at Tintagel

Cornish Pasty treat... be rude not to!

Bude Beachhuts

Sunset at Hartland Quay

As well as a bit of wintery walking we also braved the ice cold sea for a bit of winter surfing! Togged up in our thick wetsuits, gloves, booties and oh so flattering but thank god we had them hoods, we had the most exciting, tiring and fun surfing session with the Big Blue Surf School.

Even though we had to hide behind our surf boards from a mini hail storm at one point, I have to say I never felt the cold and thoroughly enjoyed being out there. I even managed to stand up and ride a few waves in to shore! I definitely fell off a lot too but I didn't care, it was fun and we even had a rainbow watching over us at one point...

The evenings in the cottage were cosy and filled with home-cooked meals and boardgames most nights with the odd film and plenty of gin also making an appearance!

The cottage, the location, the company and the activities on this holiday were all brilliant! And the surrounding villages and coast line are some of my most favourite places to visit - especially as one of my bestest friends lives down there now too and I got to see her! *happy dance*

All in all I had the perfect winter beach break and I would go back in a heartbeat! I also got time to doodle towards the end of the week too...

Sunday, 21 February 2016

Send some Sunshine this Mothers Day (that's the 6th March!) and save 15% on selected sunshine gifts* with code MOTHERLOVER at checkout! Head over to www.hello-sunshine.co.uk to check out what's on offer!

Friday, 19 February 2016

It's that time of the week again and with Mothers Day coming up on Sunday the 6th of March (quick write it down!) I thought it may be the perfect time to share these two lovely Mummy Sunshines I was asked to doodle over the festive season.

It was such a pleasure to doodle for Lousie again, especially being asked to create such a lovely and personal gift to give her Mum. It includes some of her favourite things and two lovely photos of Louise and her Brother behind her.

This beautiful winter walk Sunshine was created especially for Jo to gift to her Mum this Christmas and includes three rather handsome and super cute pooches, Max, Jack and Biggles. I LOVE creating Sunshines but adding in pets and getting to know their characters as the photos and descriptions get emailed in to me is just THE BEST! It was a lot of fun doodling this one too...

I have a few slots available to take on Mother's Day Sunshine commissions so if you would like to give your Mum some Sunshine this year please do drop me a line at bonjour[at]hello-sunshine.co.uk - I'd love to hear from you! This is one I created for Mummy Sunshine a few years ago now but it still has pride of place on the stairs at my childhood home, next to Daddy Cool too!

If you would like to see more then you are more then welcome to have a nosey through some of my past commissions over on my Facebook Page too. I have three albums all full of fun doodles and ideas should you want any inspiration! I hope you enjoy looking through them...

Wednesday, 17 February 2016

Another 'mini series' I would like to try out on the blog and this one is to try and bring you sneak peeks and snap shots of what happens behind the scenes, on the desk and in and around Sunshine Towers now and then.

It might be cat related - Princess Pegs and Toby Cat appear to have some fans out there, it might be food related because I love my food and my fish finger sarnies get more attention that my work on Instagram or it might be a peek into what I'm working on at the time.

I spent this morning daydreaming about the wonderful desk that Holly styled as part of our photoshoot last week. It was full of all the Sunshine things that make me happy and lay around my studio all the time but it was arranged so beautifully! I'm sure you can see why I can't stop swooning over the sneaky iPhone shots I managed to grab in the studio on the day...

And this afternoon this is what was on my actual desk.... and made me equally as happy! I'm a sucker for lining things up before I start working on them, not only because it makes it easier to count but I look at how cute a line of tabby cats can look...

I hope you've all had a lovely day whether you've spent it at a desk, under a desk, on a desk or as far away from one as possible!

Tuesday, 16 February 2016

This is the first of hopefully many new blog posts I'm going to file under 'Sunshine Adventures' and I'm pretty excited! Not only would I like to share the places I explore but I also want to illustrate each adventure with a personal Sunshine. I don't know how many of you remember this Sunshine I created of Will and I after our camping trip to Yorkshire last April, but I decided I would like to do something similar for our adventures in 2016.

Every time I go on holiday I take my sketchbook along too and with all the holidays we've been lucky enough to go on so far, January has been full of scribbles! In the long post I wrote summing up 2015 and laying out goals for 2016 I hinted at bringing you some proper holiday updates and I aim to use them as an excuse to share some personal Sunshine doodles and get my crayons out more often too. I love colouring in (who doesn't!) and I never share any that I do, so rather than my usual digitally coloured Sunshines you're used to seeing, these Sunshine Adventure doodles will be of the crayon variety!

This means that rather than humping a laptop around or waiting until I'm home to complete a digital Sunshine I can enjoy the soothing qualities of colouring in and share updates while I'm away. I have already shared a couple of peeks at the first #hellosunshineadventuredoodles over on Instagram but you'll have to get to the end of this blog post to see the final Sunshine!

I thought it would make sense to start this series with our mini New Year escape, seeing as we welcomed 2016 in by spending it in a tent near the seaside! Every New Year since Will and I got together we have ended up running away to celebrate New Year together and we usually end up in a tent...

2013 : Dartmoor

2014 : Northumberland

We decided to make it a bit of a nice tradition now so we wanted to continue the NYE camping for 2015 too! Knowing that we had two pretty big holidays coming up in January we only wanted to camp for one night and didn't want to spend a lot. So we decided we would keep it local (now that we're both in Cambridge!) and go out to the East Coast, where I had my first ever holiday with Mummy & Daddy Sunshine...

Minime on Kessingland Beach about 30 years ago!

Knowing that we were going to the seaside I was already excited but I'm sure I don't need to tell you how much more excited I was when Will came in telling me he had found us a place to stay where we would be seeing in the New Year floating up the trees! Yup, floating... well more like suspended... we ended up booking a night at the Wardley Hill Campsite in their amazing tree tent!

On NYE morning I was tagged on Instragram in this post and nearly wet myself when I saw it, I mean how fun does this look? AND the sunshine was out!

We arrived at the campsite around lunchtime and were greeted by the super lovely owner who showed us 'around' the tent and gave us some tips for climbing in and out (the ladder was rather wibbly!) And after unpacking our things we headed off towards the coast and enjoyed a stroll and some homemade soup at the beach at Kessingland.

It started to get dark so we headed back to the campsite to start our 'wild' New Years Eve party underneath the stars with a campfire, left over Christmas bubble & squeak, cheese & biscuits (obviously!) and gin. To me, it was the perfect way to cosy up and say farewell to 2015...

...and waking up to 2016 with sunshine, trees and brews in tin mugs was the perfect way to say hello to the New Year ahead! I wasn't planning on starting any diets so with us being by the seaside on New Years Day I think it would have been rude not to complete the trip with a fish and chip lunch on the seafront.

It was a lovely night away and such fun staying in a suspended tent amongst the trees! I'll admit that the tent wasn't all that practical when it came to getting up in the night for bathroom breaks but we were warm and full of giggles! If you're looking for something different to do and feel adventurous then I highly recommend heading to Wardley Hill and staying in their Tree Tent. If tree house style isn't your thing though you can always take a regular tent to pitch up or even look at hiring their gorgeous Shepherds Hut or Belle Tents.

I hope you enjoyed the read and will pop back to share the upcoming posts I have planned about our beach holiday in Cornwall and our adventures in the States. Until then though I will leave you with the finished Sunshine of Will and I enjoying our tree tent adventure in Norfolk....

Friday, 12 February 2016

I am thinking I might have to try and make Friday Sunshine a regular feature on the blog, what do you think? Popping by every Friday to share my most recent commissions with you all and building up a little showcase throughout 2016 for all the fab doodles you ask me to create!So we kicked off last week with the very handsome Alfie and his best friend Ducky and this week I thought I would introduce Dylan who I drew for the very lovely Georgina as a Christmas gift to her Mum.

Dylan was an absolute pleasure to draw and I had a whole host of lovely photos of him to inspire this Pet Sunshine.

I also received a heartwarming message on Instagram last night with a snapshot of how Dylan's Sunshine looks now he's framed and on the wall of his new home. It's messages and posts like these that make my job so wonderful...

"I love this picture of Dylan you did for me. One of the best presents Georgina has given me. She always comes up with brilliant ideas and knows me so well xx"

If you would like to turn yourself or your loved ones into a Sunshine doodle at all please do get in touch by emailing bonjour[at]hello-sunshine.co.uk or head on over to my Hello Sunshine by Jo Want Facebook page to check out the Sunshine doodle albums.